Emphasis – Value for money

The substantial interest shown in the project to date indicates lots of potential for implementing the project deliverables in the future. Projections indicate that BGD has the potential to deliver extreme value for money for the future projects, including water savings and climate change adaptation projects. The investment in the development of the methodologies is therefore considered to be minimal when considering the ongoing legacy.

These savings can be achieved as the BGD project brings about a significant paradigm shift in analysis, planning design, development, maintenance, monitoring managing, evaluating, certifying and promoting the new type of urban infrastructure based on higher level of synergy and interaction of blue and green components. Differently educated and newly trained professionals will be needed in order to achieve the expected benefits of adopting BGS. These benefits include increased resilience to climate change, urban heat island effects and natural disasters, improved runoff quality, increased biodiversity, higher energy efficiency, and thus better quality of life in the urban environment.

The market potential for BGS is global, starting with developed countries able to invest in developing and testing BG technologies and solutions, and extending to developing countries, which are most at risk of climate change and natural disasters. Due to the scale of most BGS, it is estimated that 1 BGD competent professional is required for a 1,000 urban dwellers.